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Israel says it will investigate death of Palestinian amputee in Gaza

The death of Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh was denounced by the Palestinians and decried by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said the 29-year-old was shot in the head by Israeli troops close to the Gaza-Israel border fence

Palestinian artists paint a portrait of Ahed Al Tamimi (right), the 16-year-old anti-occupation campaigner who is in detention, and Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh (left), who was shot dead in clashes along the Gaza-Israel border in December 2017, in Rafah, southern Gaza, on January 3, 2018. Said Khatib / AFP

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The Israeli military said on Thursday it would further investigate the death of a disabled Palestinian who was killed in clashes sparked by United States president Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Israeli military said its own operational investigation, carried out shortly after the incident, found it was not possible to say what had killed Abu Thurayeh. It claimed no live fire had been directed at him during the dispersal of the demonstration, at which protesters hurled explosive devices and rocks and set tyres alight.

"In order to further examine the case, including information received from organisations operating in the Gaza Strip, it was decided that the circumstances of Thurayeh's death will also be examined by a Military Police investigation," the army said on Thursday.

Mr Trump's announcement on Jerusalem last month has sparked weekly protests along the Israel-Gaza border and in the occupied West Bank, often leading to clashes between demonstrators and the Israeli security forces.

Abu Thurayeh attended such demonstrations, saying in media interviews that he had lost both his legs in a 2008 Israeli missile strike on Gaza.